1. As standing water put into motion by the stroke of a _stone_, or blast of wind, doth _not presently_ give over moving as soon as the wind ceaseth, or the stone settleth: so _neither_ doth the _effect_ cease which the _object_ hath wrought upon the _brain_, so soon as ever by turning aside of the organs the _object ceaseth_ to work; that is to say, though the _sense_ be _past_, the _image_ or _conception_ remaineth; but more _obscure_ while we are _awake_, because some _object_ or other continually _plieth_ and soliciteth our eyes, and ears, _keeping_ the mind in a _stronger_ motion, whereby the _weaker_ doth not easily _appear_. And this obscure conception is that we call _phantasy_, or _imagination_: _imagination_ being, to define it, _conception remaining, and by little and little decaying from and after the act of sense_. [Sidenote: Sleep and dreams defined.] 2. But when _present_ sense is _not_, as in _sleep_, there the _images_ remaining after sense, when there be many, as in dreams, are _not obscure_, but _strong_ and _clear_, as in sense itself. The reason is, that which obscured and made the conceptions weak, namely sense, and present _operation_ of the object, is _removed_: for _sleep_ is the _privation of the act of sense_, (the power remaining) and _dreams_ are the _imagination_ of them that _sleep_. [Sidenote: Causes of dreams.] 3. The _causes_ of dreams, if they be natural, are the _actions_ or violence of the _inward_ parts of a man upon his _brain_, by which the _passages_ of sense by sleep _benumbed_, are _restored_ to their motion. The signs by which this appeareth to be so, are the _differences_ of dreams (old men commonly dream oftener, and have their dreams more painful than young) proceeding from the _different_ accidents of man’s body, as dreams of _lust_, as dreams of _anger_, according as the heart, or other parts within, work more or less upon the brain, by more or less _heat_; so also the descents of different _sorts of phlegm_ maketh us a dream of different tastes of meats and drinks; and I believe there is a _reciprocation_ of motion from the brain to the vital parts, and back from the vital parts to the brain; whereby not only _imagination_ begetteth _motion_ in those parts; but also motion in those parts begetteth imagination like to that by which it was begotten. If this be true, and that _sad_ imaginations nourish the _spleen_, then we see also a cause, why a strong _spleen_ reciprocally causeth _fearful dreams_, and why the effects of _lasciviousness_ may in a dream produce the image of some person that had _caused_ them. Another sign that dreams are caused by the action of the inward parts, is the _disorder_ and casual consequence of one conception or image to another: for when we are _waking_, the _antecedent_ thought or conception introduceth, and is cause of the _consequent_, as the water followeth a man’s finger upon a dry and level table; but in